Obama campaign still focused on Romney, despite Santorum showing

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s surprise showing in Iowa may have captured the media’s imagination, but the Obama campaign remains laser focused on Mitt Romney.

During a 40-minute conference call on the state of the GOP primary race, Obama campaign manager David Axelrod and Obama for America leader Jim Messina saved nearly all their barbs for Romney, only briefly mentioning Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

At one point, Axelrod said Santorum is just the latest Republican front-runner/Romney alternative to be offered up to public scrutiny.

“There is the monkey up the pole test,” Axelrod said. “ And now it is Sen. Santorum who has climbed up the poll… America will then judge if they like the view.”

Axelrod said Romney-friendly Super PACs will certainly focus some of their energy on making Santorum look unattractive to voters in the coming weeks. With candidates like Michelle Bachman and probably Rick Perry stepping aside, Santorum and Gingrich could benefit from social conservatives uniting around one candidate.

“The more these candidates peel off, the more the base of the Republican party that Governor Romney has so vigorously tried to court and has not yet responded can coalesce around an alternative,” Axelrod said. “We’ll have to see what happens in the next couple of contests.”

But when asked by one reporter if the campaign had developed a strategy to against a possible Santorum candidacy, Axelrod and Messina completely sidestepped, and aimed more attacks at Romney.

Axelrod and Messina said that in order to succeed in New Hampshire, Romney will need to win by 30 points in what they consider a “home game” for the former Massachusetts governor.